Tiny Little Fractures
by InvisibleDisaster
Summary: How do the lives of all our beloved Pieholers, Ned in specific, go on after the final episode? I'll try to include every character in this story although I haven't thought of anything for Chuck's aunts. This is supposed to get long & huge. hope u like it
1. Just My Imagination

**Tiny Little Fractures**

Just My Imagination

The freezing air of a cold and cloudy Mid-November morning blew into the Pie Maker's face as he opened the doors of his beloved, pie-shaped bakery for another day which seems to come to no end. He had felt quite lonely since Olive wasn't working for him anymore. He had visited her in her new restaurant once, it was a warm and cozy place and the whole atmosphere suited Olive's character almost too well. Ned had never seen her eyes shine like this in her Pie-Hole days, so he surely was happy for her, but still, she simply missed working with bubbly Olive.

Ever since Emerson's daughter had found her way to him, he appeared to be a completely different human being. Ned definitely missed his dark sarcasm which he now found was one of the most loveable things about Emerson. Probably even the most loveable one of all of them. But his daughter seemed to have brought a huge bowl of ice cream, sunshine and rainbows into the private detective's life and he had, without a doubt, no fear of eating it all up, just to spread a jolly aura all across the planet.

Not that that was a bad thing, oh hell no. Ned really liked the new Emerson, as well as his daughter but he felt like all the memories he had with him were somehow surreal, lost and worthless now.

Still, Emerson wasn't the biggest problem of the Pie Maker, he still visited him whenever he could or when he came across new tricky cases, preferably with corpses.

Neither didn't the unpaid bills really bother Ned, nor the fact that the only company he had around him was his dog, Digby, that he couldn't even touch.

Or well, actually that was a part of his problem.

The Pie-Maker felt alone and every day seemed to be endless – just because someone very special wasn't there by his side.

He was missing Chuck.

It had been 4 months, 19 days, 6 hours, 48 minutes and 52 seconds since the last time he saw the girl he had had his very first kiss with and whom he had awakened from death again, an action which he sometimes considered as incredibly selfish.

Chuck had gone off to finally travel around the world, without being killed, of course, as she had desired since her teenage years and frankly, he would have loved to stop her, to tell her to stay here with him because he needed her but he also knew how much all this meant to her and how she had suffered when he wouldn't let her tell her aunts that she certainly wasn't dead anymore, so he really didn't want to keep her here with him, just to watch her suffer once again.

Even though this cold and cloudy Mid-November morning seemed to be just like all those other cold and cloudy Mid-November mornings he had already experienced, Ned had no idea how drastically his life would be changed today.

Suddenly, a female voice he knew very well broke the silence surrounding him: "Oh, Ned! Hi!"

And another female voice he knew just as well came from the other side: "Hello, Ned."

He turned around to find the woman who had spoken first coming from the left, rushing towards him while on the right, the second woman was standing a little more distant, smiling a smile that made him want to melt.

Unsure how to react, he looked from one girl to the other with a confused look on his face: "Olive – Chuck – Uh, hey."

He quickly tried to decide whom to hug first – until he realized that there was only one option, so he wrapped his arms around Olive while flashing a smile to Chuck who was finally walking up to the others.

When Olive was done squeezing Ned like a cuddly toy, he quickly caught his breath again, still really confused: "So, I am – surprised – very surprised to see both of you here. Uh, who want so tell me their story first, while eating a piece of fresh made pie?"

Ned smiled and opened the door for Olive and Chuck to get in when a figure in the shadows on the other side of the road caught his eye.

"Ned? Everything alright?" Chuck asked, following his absent stare.

"Oh, yeah yeah. I – I just thought I saw someone who... but that was just my imagination, I bet"


	2. It's A Hit

It's A Hit

It had been 2 hours, 24 minutes and 47 seconds since Chuck and Olive had stepped back into the Pie Maker's life and all this time between now and then had been wasted by both of them telling him both of their stories.

Olive Snook's restaurant, "The Intrepid Cow", had had a great start but that was about all it had ever achieved as long as it existed.

Exactly 2 weeks, 5 hours, 36 minutes and 25 seconds had passed since she had to shut it down and 3 days, 7 hours, 54 minutes and 16 seconds later Olive and Randy Mann called it quits which caused Olive to straw around without a place to go or an aim in life until she remembered all the highs and the lows she had been through when she was still working at the Pie Hole and after she had thought of the most detailed but also not boring story to tell Ned when she would arrive there, she was ready to travel back into her past, hoping to be able to apply for her old job and make get her old apartment back.

Charlotte Charles' story was not as detailed as Olive's but it still took some time until she had finished her story for the Pie Maker.

As we recall, it had been 4 months, 19 days, 6 hours, 48 minutes and 52 seconds since the two of them had seen each other for the last time and exactly 4 months, 17 days, 5 hours and 14 seconds since she had started to travel the world again.

So she told Ned – and Olive – about all the cities she had been to and all the sights she had seen and visited.

She told them how she felt when she visited the Eiffel Tower in Paris, how much better the sound of the actual Big Ben was compared to all those cheap remakes for alarm clocks and cell phones and also what the Colosseum in Rome smelled like. Neither Olive nor Ned had any idea that Chuck had left some other parts out which might really matter to all of them in near future.

Right now, Ned didn't really care about anything that might really matter to him in the future. The only thing he could think of was how perfect his life had just become once again.

Olive would work by his side again and light up everybody's mood with her bubbly character and most importantly, the girl he called Chuck would light up his mood everyday.

He didn't even notice how the foolish smile he only smiled when Chuck was around returned, after 4 months, 19 days, 6 hours, 48 minutes and 52 seconds when he had always been slightly depressed.

As soon as Olive had gone off to move into her old apartment again, Ned immediately felt the need to talk to Chuck about everything he had planned for the two of them while she was away but she didn't even give him enough time to open his mouth.

"Ned, I really, really like you, and I'm sure that you know that. And I also really, really like living with you but... I thought that maybe I should live with my aunts – well, my mom and Aunt Vivian. It's just like, you know, I've been missing them so much all this time and I've never really lived with them, knowing that Lily actually is my mother so I..."

"Oh, no no. It's okay, Chuck, seriously. I – I see that that's how you feel about – all this."

"Are you sure you are cool with this? I mean, it's not gonna be forever, I just thought – maybe for a little while..."

"Yeah, of course I'm cool with that. Come on, it's your life, you decide where you wanna spend it. - Talking about life, you know life is – it's a hit. You just constantly keep on fighting against all the wrongs and the doubts it throws into your path and whenever you think you've defeated them all, it hits you right back and you find yourself rolling across the kitchen floor of your bakery, perhaps."

"Uh, Ned. You don't really sound like you could deal with this."

"I can deal with this just fine, thank you Chuck. Maybe you are the one of us who can't deal with you living away from me for a while."

What the hell was he talking there? Was he delirious?

Chuck looked at him like he was a giant, pink, talking platypus that was babbling total nonsense in front of her until she took a breath and said:

"I guess I ought to go to my aunts – uh, you know where I ought to go now. Will – Will you come visit me maybe? And please don't forget that this won't be forever..."

"I know, Chuck, I know. You know what, I'll drive you."


	3. Do You Know What I'm Seeing?

Do You Know What I'm Seeing?

1 hour, 12 minutes and 6 seconds after the Pie Maker had brought the girl named Chuck to her aunt Vivian's and her mother Lily's house, he found himself sitting in the Pie Hole, watching Emerson Cott chew on a piece of Apple Pie with a lot of Olive-Love inside.

"So, the dead girl went back to those loony old women and now your life appears senseless to you, if I got that right", he babbled with his mouth full.

"No, my life doesn't appear senseless to me, not at all", Ned shook his head in disbelief.

"That's just not what I expected her return to be like"

"I know. Of course you thought it would be a bright sunshiny day with a cloudless sky and purple unicorns singing "Hallelujah". You need to get a grip on reality, Ned"

"What the hell are you talking a... Okay, this conversation has just gotten ridiculous, so can we please skip to the new case?"

And Emerson told him about a girl named Emily Rodgers.

Emily Rodgers' life had lasted 22 years, 17 hours, 52 minutes and 35 seconds before someone stabbed her back with a pair of early 20th century scissors while she was working on her own jewelry line which she was famous for selling over the internet.

Finally, her mom found her dead body the next morning, as well as the word "Backstabber" written on her desk in her own blood.

When the Pie Maker and the Private Investigator arrived, Ned felt this sick little twist in his stomach which he just couldn't get rid off completely, although he had seen so many dead bodies in even worse states than Emily's.

He touched the back of her head and the girl, the scissors still stuck into her back, immediately started babbling.

"Oh! Hi! How late is it? Is it... ouch, what's that in my... am I dead or something?"

"Uh, yes indeed. You're dead. Someone stabbed you. Do you have any idea who could've done it? Any enemies?"

"Uh..." Emily read the words on her desk. "O-M-G. Did they write it with MY blood? How dare..."

"Listen, Emily. You only have one minute before I have to send you back to the dead. So think. Quick."

"Well, honestly. I never thought of it but I guess I had a lot of enemies."

"Like?"

"Like... those four douches, uh, I mean my four ex-business-partners. They've always been so..."

The Pie Maker touched her hand and Emily was lying in her own blood again.

"Do you know what I'm seeing?" Emerson asked shortly after.

Ned shook his head a little, obviously thinking of something, or better someone, completely different.

"Four betrayed little jewelry makers, each of them wishing for revenge. Well, now this could get interesting" Emerson said, smiling to himself,

"I'll find out about that chick's business partners and you just... go back to making pie and thinking about your dead little girlfriend. Looks like we two are having a date with four potential killers tomorrow."

* * *

_Sorry for not updating for so long :/ I was really busy with really boring but important stuff. This chapter is not that long & good either because I just wanted to publish something finally, after such a long time but the other ones are gonna be longer & better again, promise._

_Thx for reading :)_


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